Montenegro Road Trip – 6 Reasons to explore Montenegro by car

Montenegro seems like it was created with one single purpose in mind: Providing every ingredient one needs for a perfect road trip adventure. And a road trip through Montenegro doesn’t have to be expensive, especially when your travel with a group of 2 – 4 people.

Just to give you an idea, the basic data of our trip were as follows:

Montenegro Road Trip Key Data

Road Trip through Montenegro including the following stops and sights:

Trip Length: 16 days in total (mid of September to beginning of October)

Total Distance covered: 980 km

Overall Costs: 490 € per person

So here are 6 reasons why a road trip is the best way to explore Montenegro.

1) The Size

Montenegro is a small country and with a car you can explore a lot of it within a short time frame. A relaxed round trip through the whole country can easily be done within 2 to 3 weeks.

The Bay of Kotor

2) Cheap Rental Cars

A rental car can cost as little as 10€ per day. We used www.billiger-mietwagen.de and payed only 7,50 € a day for a compact car including full insurance, unlimited kilometers and a second driver. Gas isn’t too expensive either (1.22 € per liter) and there’s ample gas stations everywhere.

The Tara Canyon

3) Traffic / Safety

Despite what you might read elsewhere, traffic in Montenegro isn’t too heavy and local driving behavior is pretty moderate. Driving in Montenegro was actually far from being as unsafe and chaotic as some other sources made us believe beforehand.

4) Road Conditions

The condition of almost all roads we used in Montenegro were surprisingly good. Highways seemed very new and even small mountain roads had no bigger obstacles but the occasional pothole. All in all we’ve covered a distance of 980 km and didn’t have any problem whatsoever.

Viewpoint Lake Skadar

5) Freedom

Freedom is a feeling that seems to be inherently linked to the term “road trip”. You can go whenever you want wherever you want. Just stop along the way if you see something interesting, stay as long as you like, and move on as soon as wanderlust strikes again. It is hard to achieve this freedom when using public transport.

In addition to that, wild camping is tolerated in Montenegro as long as you do not disturb anybody or leave any traces. If you want to pitch your tent on private land always seek permission beforehand. We weren’t rejected a single time.

The view from Mt. Lovčen

6) The Vistas

This is the main reason for Montenegro being the perfect road trip country. The views and vistas along the way are simply spectacular. It doesn’t matter if you drive along the shore of the Bay of Kotor from Herceg Novi to Kotor, or if you take the small mountain roads winding through Durmitor National Park. It seems like almost every road in Montenegro is an attraction in its own right. So do not rush it and always calculate an extra hour or two for possible detours, pitstops, picnics and photo-stops along the way.

The Bay of Kotor as seen from the road up Mt. Lovčen

Hopefully the images give you an idea of Montenegro’s beauty. Since Montenegro has such an abundance of scenic roads and drives, a road trip is a fabulous way to explore the small Balkan country.

Do you have any questions or comments? Have you done a road trip through Montenegro or do you plan to do so? I’d really like to know what you would recommend. Just drop me a comment below. I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

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